cairn

This morning Paula Bear swung into action as a Greenpeace activist. While our ships are confronting Cairn Energy's oil rig in the Arctic, she’s blocking the entrance to the wildcat drillers' headquarters in Edinburgh.

Horrified that Cairn Energy are drilling for oil in the Arctic, Paula’s rage was tipped over the edge when she learned that Cairn won’t even make their oil spill response plan public.

We obtained a series of documents [download part one and part two, both pdfs] today under a Freedom of Information request that show the government is saying privately what we've been saying publicly: an Arctic oil spill would be all but impossible to clear up.

How much oil lies under that Arctic ice? 90 billion barrels, according to the US Geological Survey.

But, how much really is that? If you ask an oil company, that’s a huge amount. With a barrel of oil over the hundred dollar mark, that's nine trillion dollars worth at today’s prices – if you could get at it all.

However, there’s a much more important number than the mind-boggling figures that the oil companies deal in.

UPDATE: Force 7 gales have forced the activists down from the rig and to safety. But the campaign continues - stay tuned.

It's the only rig on the planet that is destined to begin new deep sea drilling in the Arctic this year.

Cairn Energy's Leiv Eiriksson is on its way to Baffin Bay, Greenland, leading the new oil rush.

This morning at 5.40 local time, a handful of our volunteers intercepted the rig shortly after it left Besiktas near Istanbul in Turkey.

Ever since last month’s Budget, oil companies have been complaining about George Osborne’s tax on North Sea oil and gas. Yet many have just announced record profits - boosted considerably by current sky-high oil prices. What do they take us for?